PITTSBURGH (AP) — Two Pittsburgh-area transit drivers have been ordered to stand trial on charges they drove recklessly when prosecutors say they raced their empty, off-duty buses side by side before one of them crashed over an interstate embankment.
Police say 46-year-old Juliann Maier and 56-year-old Thomas Frauens were driving 65 mph in a 55 mph and scraped each other's bus before the Sept. 22 crash on Interstate 279.
Surveillance video played in court on Friday showed the buses make contact before Maier’s crashed over the hillside.
The video also appears to show Frauens gesture with his right arm. Cops called it a buggy whip motion, meant to entice Maier to drag race him.
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However, Maier’s attorney, Joel Sansone, said the video doesn’t prove his client saw the gesture.
Sansone says the bus Maier crashed was dangerous and in disrepair and claims the transit agency has filed the charges to cover that up.
“The video is so clear. The bus is out of control. Nobody’s playing games and nobody’s jockeying for position. This woman was almost killed in a bus that was in catastrophic failure,” Sansone said.
District Attorney Stephen Zappala called the incident a near catastrophe.
The drivers are charged with recklessly endangering other motorists and several traffic citations.
There were no passengers on either bus, but Maier was hospitalized and continues to recover from her injuries.
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